Radnor Township Commissioner Charged With Child Porn Possession: DA

RADNOR TOWNSHIP, PA – Radnor Township Commissioner Philip Ahr has been arrested and charged with crimes related to child pornography, the Delaware County District Attorney's Office said Wednesday.

Ahr, 66, of Radnor Township was arrested on numerous counts of child pornography possession and distribution charges for images that depict children as infants engaged in sex acts with adults after turning himself in to authorities Wednesday, Oct. 11, the DA's office said.

Ahr, who was elected as the Board of Commissioners president in the summer, has been charged with 10 counts of disseminating child pornography, 50 counts of child pornography possession, 60 counts of criminal use of a communication facility, and 10 counts of attempted dissemination of child pornography, court records show. All of these charges are felonies.

Ahr was arraigned at 1 p.m. Wednesday and released from custody after posting 10 percent of $100,000 bail, according to court records.

Ahr is scheduled to appear for a preliminary hearing on Oct. 26, according to court documents.

Radnor Board of Commissioners Vice President Elaine Schaefer, who has since been named acting Board President, told Patch in an email that she is "devastated and disturbed" by Ahr's arrest.

"It is important to remember, however, that these allegations have nothing to do with the Township, the Radnor community or the Board of Commissioners," Schaefer said. "They involve a single individual and his personal behavior, which, if true, is shocking and horrifying. The Board of Commissioners will continue to conduct the important business of the Township without interruption."

Schaefer said she made a formal request to Ahr for him to resign from his role with the board. She went on to say should he not resign, she said she'd call a special meeting to move forward with formally removing him from the president role.

Earlier this week at the Board of Commissioners meeting, for which Ahr was not present, Commissioner Richard Booker made a motion to replace Ahr as the board president. However, the motion failed with a 3-3 vote.

Booker said he made the motion due to Ahr's absence from township meetings, as well as the investigation, and the need for the township to continue addressing township business.

The investigation was made public in late September, but authorities did not say what the nature of the investigation was at the time.

County officials began investigating Ahr on Aug. 31, the DA's office said.

That day, investigators learned from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that someone, later identified as Ahr, uploaded and shared images of suspected child pornography through a Yahoo Messenger account, according to the DA's office.

That same day, a subpoena was issued to Verizon requesting the subscriber of the IP address, which was revealed to be Ahr's IP address, the DA's office said.

Then on Sept. 21, authorities executed a search warrant on Ahr's Radnor home, the DA's office said.

Ahr was home and spoke with detectives, telling them he had been "sexting" online with people and that the purpose of the chats was sexual in nature, the DA's office said.

According to Ahr, he used Yahoo Messenger to "sext" with unknown individuals, which involved sexual talk about children, the DA's office said.

Ahr also told detectives that during one of these conversations, an unknown person sent him about one dozen child pornography images of girls who Ahr estimated to be approximately 13 years-old, the DA's office said.

Some of the images involved female children engaging in sex acts with adult males, according to the DA's office.

Ahr admitted to detectives that he sent and received images of child pornography to and from an individual he was chatting with, according to the DA's office.

The DA's office said Ahr stated, "obviously I knew the images were illegal and don't know how I could say otherwise."

Investigators found video and numerous graphic images depicting children engaged in sex acts, as well as numerous chat logs between in which Ahr shared and sought graphic images and videos of children in sexual positions, bondage and engaged in sex acts with adults, the DA's office said.

Authorities also found more than 1,000 web links to pornographic images, some including child pornography, according to the DA's office.

Two computers in Arh's home had Excel spreadsheets on them which appeared innocuous. However, it was later discovered that the spreadsheets contained more than 1,000 web site addresses, hundreds of which were still active and contained child pornography, the DA's office said.

Of those website, investigators found more than 500 images and videos of child pornography, mostly showing minor children being sexually abused by adult males and females, the DA's office said.

According to the DA's office, Ahr’s collection was mainly comprised of prepubescent girls under the age of 10 years, but also included infants and toddlers.

A portion of the images and videos depicted sado-masochistic sexual abuse, and children being sexually abused by animals, according to the DA's office.

"Those who possess and share child pornography directly contribute to the appalling exploitation of innocent children and our detectives with the ICAC Task Force are actively working to locate and arrest these perpetrators," District Attorney Jack Whelan said. "As an elected individual and Chairman of Radnor Board of Commissioners, Mr. Ahr took an oath to serve and protect the residents, and for that reason we hold him to a higher standard of conduct. I would like to commend Sgt. Kenneth Bellis, Det. Edmond Pisani, Detective Chris Tankelewicz and the entire ICAC Task Force for their continued work to find and apprehend these perpetrators."

Image via Radnor Township